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Thursday, March 8, 2012

I recently received a copy of The Sexy Vegan Cookbook to review and I have to say it's been a while since I've been so excited over a new cookbook. First, The Sexy Vegan is hilarious. Sexy, that's up to you to decide, but hilarious, definitely. The intro to the book and to many of his recipes had me LOL'ing. If he weren't so good at cooking vegan, he could consider a career in comedy.

But of course the main reason I'm excited about this book is because of the recipes. They definitely skew toward the "meaty" types, like Tempeh Sliders, Barbecue Ribz, and Seitan Steak & Fries. And there's even a whole section of cocktail recipes, and an entire section for pizza, so what more could you ask for?

The first recipe I tried out was for this Hangover Hash. I was not hungover but I am suffering from sleep deprivation so that counts, doesn't it? I LOVED THIS. It's an incredible combination of quinoa, sweet potatoes, breakfast sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and some other good stuff. SO GOOD. I could happily eat this for breakfast every day.

The next thing I made was this Curry Fried Tofu Salad. I'm kind of on a big-salad-for-dinner kick right now, maybe because the weather is getting warmer and I'm feeling a need to cleanse from the heavy winter comfort foods. Regardless, this one was super easy to make (especially because I shredded/sliced all the veggies in the food processor) and packed with flavor from the curry seasoning and the Thai-inspired dressing.

And I had to make his Lasagna Fauxlognese, seeing as he claims that this is the best dish he makes. This lasagna contains not one but three types of homemade nut-based cheeses, plus a tofu-based "bolognese" sauce. The layers are filled with a cashew ricotta, and then it is topped with walnut-based parmesan sprinkles and a cashew-based mozzarella sauce. I will say this - normally I hate the kind of recipes where you have to make a bunch of other recipes first, and this was one of those, but the end result was really delicious. Really, really delicious. Like, lick the pan clean kind of delicious.

I really like the mozzarella sauce instead of using shreds that don't fully melt. It's genius, really.

I was super impressed with how the dishes turned out, and I have plenty more flagged to test. If there's any criticism, it's with those pesky recipes that include the other pre-recipes (my pet peeve) that you have to make first, but I can't complain at all about the final results. In fact, I'd say the final results were actually pretty darned sexy.

Everything I've made from this book has been surprisingly delicious. Not just vegan good, but good by vegan and carnivore standards. I was really pleased with the cheese sauces. The nacho flavor really is good enough to eat on it's own as a dip, not needing the support of other add-ons like chili to mask off flavors like many vegan recipes do. The breakfast sausage has convinced me that I don't need to buy the pre-packed stuff anymore. It was so easy and tasty, why would I? The Balls for the spaghetti -- Yum!